122 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



There is an excellent hotel, kept by a German, in the 

 colony ; while those who prefer it can find board and 

 lodging at the monastery, where the fathers have 

 accommodation for a hundred guests. For my own 

 part, I preferred renting a house in the colony ; and 

 though it involved furnishing throughout, the under- 

 taking proved more simple and economical than I 

 could have imagined. Nor could any better evidence 

 be required of the resources of the colony than the 

 fact that I was enabled either to purchase or have 

 made, everything I required to furnish and install 

 myself simply but comfortably in a roomy two-storeyed 

 house. Most of the colonists now speak Arabic, and 

 among the younger members excellent servants are to 

 be found. Mutton, veal," pork, and chickens are the 

 principal articles of meat diet to be obtained; and 

 the native bazaar affords a plentiful supply of fruit 

 and vegetables. 



The population of Haifa has now increased to 

 about 6000 inhabitants, and we ride or drive to it 

 from the colony, a mile distant, between high cactus 

 hedges. During the grain season it presents quite a 

 busy aspect : hundreds of camels, with grain from the 

 Hauran, are at this time of the year clustered in 

 picturesque groups under the high cactus hedge at 

 the gate of the town, where the principal warehouses 

 for the reception of their loads are collected. During 

 more than half the year the harbour is seldom with- 

 out one steamer ; sometimes there are as many as 



